IGNOU making way for Online Examination

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), one of the top distance education universities in India, shall soon make it possible for the students to appear for exams through online mode. Recently, this institute witnessed a huge response from students when it started online admission procedure for the current academic session. The University is now in talks with University Grant Commission (UGC) and HRD Ministry concerning the online examination.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Nageshwar Rao said, "We are actively considering offering the examination online to make the process smooth and easy for students. Government is also examining the proposal and the modalities are being worked out. We are in talks with HRD ministry and UGC regarding the same."

"We started online admissions this year and got a massive response. At present we have the entire process in online mode including the registration, issuing of admit cards, schedule updation but the examination is still conducted in the traditional paper mode where students have to go to their respective study centres," Rao added.

IGNOU is a leading institute for distance learning in India with more than 28 lakh students enrolled for various programmes. This assignment is going to be a tough challenge for the university.

IGNOU has started online examination for 27 courses on an exercise basis, but after objection of University Grant Commission (UGC), the proposal had been withdrawn.

"We had started with 27 courses which had student strength of not more than 300, to experiment the feasibility. The response was good but later it had to be withdrawn when UGC said it doesn't recognize the online mode of examination. Now, they (UGC) will be taken onboard to find a way out which is also recognized by the commission," the VC said.